Phenomenon of hypersegmentation of neutrophil leukocytes nuclei in acute radiation sickness caused by total and incomplete irradiation

Presented are the data on segmentation index dynamics of peripheral blood neutrophils and that of bone marrow in rats after single total irradiation and that with the shielding of lower extremities at the doses of 1000 and 2000 rad. The segmentation index (which characterized the number of segments in one neutrophil leukocyte) has been determined in peripheral blood, in breast bone marrow and the shielded thigh. The accumulation of neutrophil leukocytes with nuclei divided into a number of segments larger than the normal.one has been noted in the blood and bone marrow of the animals. The growth of the segmentation index in this case is explained by the increasing segmentation of neutrophil nuclei of normal sizes, and also by the appearance of giant hypersegmented kinds of neutrophiles. Such a dynamics of the segmentation index is supposed not to be able to be connected with only a direct effect of radiation on cells, as hypersegmentation of neutrophil leukocyte nuclei is also observed in bone marrow parts shielded from irradiation. This phenomenon is due to humoral effects